Chronicles Of Life And Death, The - Good Charlotte > Reviews > GC Get Credible

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money

Advantages:	Impressive vocals, top notch production, plenty of diversity
Disadvantages:	Some lyrics are kinda dire, the dramaticism and FX could prove a matter of taste

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Good Charlotte's second album was a bit of a mixed bag. It definately had a different feel to their self-titled debut album, but it still had the same themes: the Madden twins' dad, and high school experiences. The lyrics thrilled few and the commerical production alienated some of their 'punkier' followers.

I consider myself a pretty old school Good Charlotte follower for a Briton. I went to their second ever gig in the UK, on their first UK tour. They were so small then, the venue was the tiny Camden Barfly, and it was a few weeks before The Young and The Hopeless was released. They hung out in the bar before and after the performance - no fear of clingy teenyboppers tearing their shirts and screaming their names then. It was an intimate gig and the band were very relaxed and friendly. The show remains one of my fondest memories - I have never had a such a personal encounter at a show since.

You'd think this would make me a little biased, but I have to admit I was not planning to buy (and technically have not bought...) this CD. This wasn't a response to GC "going mainstream", I really couldn't care less if they had 12 consecutive number ones. I was worried that Chronicles would be more of what I hadn't liked about the preceding album - Hold On and Girls & Boys did not thrill me in the least. And to be honest, Predictable merely revived the Good Charlotte fan within me, but my interest was held back by that dodgy rap.

How wrong I was. Chronicles really isn't more of the same. I won't go through it track by track, so I'll group the songs into the 3 categories which have arisen from about 10-15 hearings of the album.

Group 1: The Singles

This group contains Predictable, I Just Wanna Live, The World is Black and We Believe. These are the songs listed on the sticker on the front of my sister's copy of the CD. I can only assume this means they are to be released but that's no guarantee. These tracks do stand out however.

The production, particularly on I Just Wanna Live and the World is Black, is much more commercial than on the songs in Group 2, which are comparatively raw. This doesn't make them bad though - unlike the production on songs like Girls & Boys which I described once as 'elevator musak', the songs sound polished, proffessional and sophisticated. Rather than making them sound pop, added effects like strings and digital blips lend an air of diversity to the album.

There are definate influences of artists such as N.E.R.D. in these songs, but no, uh, 'borrowed' riffs or lyrics as there were on the previous albums.

Group 2: The Should-Be Singles and the Unsung Elysians

This group contains Ghost of You, It Wasn't Enough, In This World (Murder) and Mountain.

As may be obvious, these songs, along with a couple of the singles from Group 1, are my personal favourites. I love the 80s touch in Ghost of You and the intense chorus. I love the lyrics in these songs, which are clearly less commerical and verge on poetic - a few metaphors and similes and some strong imagery work to great advantage. These songs are a lot deeper, particularly the latter 3. Although many of the songs on the album deal with subjects relating to relationships, there is variation so I don't think this becomes tedious.

In terms of production, Ghost of You has a very polished 80s style arrangement, whereas the other 3 seem much rougher with plenty of distortion, some wailing guitars and power chords, and effective dynamics.

These songs are generally a little heavier than Group 1 but not as generic as Group 3.

Group 3: All Filler no Thriller

I'd place the title track, Walk Away (Maybe), SOS, Secrets, and the version specific song (Falling Away or Meet My Maker depending on whether you have the Life or Death version respectively) in this category.

Basically, there's nothing really to dislike about these songs, they just don't stand out and can verge on a very generic rock style, spiced up with guitar riffs and a few sound effects.

I've missed out one song from these groups, this being The Truth. As I said earlier, I see this song as the 'Hey Dad' of the third album. It's comes across as very heartfelt, and is too distinctly different from the other tracks for me to group it with them. I don't really like it to be honest - the lyrics could be better, and the simplistic piano-based arrangement is a bit of an anti-climax after listening to the heavier songs. However one thing that really impressed me about this song was Joel's vocals. He really puts in a lot of effort and emotion into it, and you can hear elements of this some of the other tracks (the chorus of Ghost of You for example). This sends a little shiver down my spine - it's a far cry from the 'ticka ticka' of Waldorf Worldwide.

To wrap it up, 5 things I love about this album:

+ more advanced vocals
+ no mention (that I've noticed) of the twins' dad or high school
+ much more diversity in the music and deeper lyrics
+ lots of harmonies
+ blistering production

And 5 downsides:

- some lyrics are a little pretentious (the first verse alone of Ghost of You uses the words/phrases: the end, pendulum, darker side, hearts bleeding, grave, and sleep eternally)
- several of the songs are quite generic
- the secret track isn't all that great and it's frustrating to have to wait ages for it to start when I'm cycling home and don't want to stop. Also there is an 18 second silence at the end of In This World (Murder) which can be really irritating
- like The Young and The Hopeless, this album has an instrumental intro track which just sounds like movie music. It does nothing for me at all
- the CD insert has no thank yous or photos, only the lyrics, some doodles (illustrations) by Billy and a letter from Benji which is practically identical to the one in the CD insert of The Young and The Hopeless.

Overall I definately recommend this CD, but get the Life Version - Falling Away is much better than Meet My Maker.